


Soulmates? Really? Stark Style

by whiteraven1606



Series: Soulmates [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M, Soulmates, Teamwork, Telepathic Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-03
Updated: 2013-02-03
Packaged: 2017-11-28 01:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/668766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteraven1606/pseuds/whiteraven1606
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony's side of the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soulmates? Really? Stark Style

****

When Loki threw the little glowing thing at the Hulk, Tony was banking to come back around to attack. The little thing curled around Hulk's wrist and JARVIS took over Tony's flying for several moments as Tony's head _hurt_.

"Shit. Remind me not to pull g-force turns when I've got a hangover, J." Tony took control again as they closed on the Hulk pounding Loki into the pavement.

"Sir, that turn was not sharp enough to induce any heavy g-forces."

"Whatever." Tony added a blast to Hulk's smashing and Hulk looked up to smile at him for a moment before going back to pounding Loki. "Shit. Cap? I don't think Hulk's going to stop before Loki's mincemeat."

Captain America's head jerked slightly and he hurried around to the fight so Hulk would see him coming.

"Hey, Hulk!"

Hulk snorted and pushed Loki into the pavement with his fist. "Busy."

"I see that. He's Thor's brother, so don't kill him. Please."

Hulk huffed and glanced at Thor standing to one side with his hammer half-raised. Hulk kicked Loki towards him. "Take puny god away from Hulk."

Thor nodded and planted Mjolnir on Loki's chest.

Tony flipped his face plate up as his head started to pound. "Are we done here?"

Hulk sat down, rubbing the side of his head, until he caught sight of the bracelet the thing Loki had thrown had become. He started pulling on it. 

Tony moved fast as Hulk flailed, trying to get it off. "Big Guy, settle down and I'll take a look."

Hulk heaved a sigh and held out his arm towards Tony. "No like Puny God."

Rubbing at his temple, Tony poked at the bracelet. "Yeah, I don't blame you." He flicked his faceplate down and looked at the readings JARVIS had taken. "We'd better take you back to the Tower." He looked up at Hulk. "Think you could give me back Bruce, buddy? He's easier on the transport's shocks."

Hulk huffed and sat down. "Metalhead's home?"

Tony nodded as he flipped the faceplate back up. "My house. No cages. I promise." He winced as his headache flared.

Hulk flopped over onto his back, closed his eyes, and started shrinking.

Tony turned towards Agent, where he'd appeared amongst the rubble. "Dr. Banner will be taken to the Tower. Understood?"

"Of course."

Tony could see Phil eyeing the bracelet around Hulk's wrist as he shrank. He flipped his faceplate back down and took off. He swept the nearby blocks for Loki's minons as his headache throbbed. He let JARVIS do the flying most of the time until they had Bruce loaded and he could fly escort on the transport.

As they shuffled Bruce into the Tower, Tony made a couple of loops around his building, looking it over, before landing to walk the de-armoring walkway.

"It didn't fall off?" He made himself a drink as the rest huddled around Bruce laid out on the couch.

Phil pulled on a pair of gloves to poke at the bracelet. "No. It reduced size in conjunction with Dr. Banner."

Tony pushed past them to tuck a finger under the bracelet, pulling on it a little. "No seams. Feels colder than it should be." He winced as his headache flared just as Steve grabbed his wrist.

"Tony, you probably shouldn't touch it with bare hands."

Tony shrugged as Phil moved away to make a call.

Bruce sat up, wrinkling his nose at the bracelet. "What is this? What happened?"

Tony tugged harder on the bracelet. "Loki threw it at you and the Big Guy couldn't get it off." Tony frowned as his headache eased into a low ache of worry that felt like it was sitting on the left side of his head.

Bruce looked worried. "Do we know what it is for?"

Phil closed his phone and came back over. "Thor doesn't recognize the description. He'll come give it a look once Loki's stable enough for chains and Thor's hammer to hold him."

Bruce rubbed his hair. "Stable? What happened to Loki?"

Tony grinned. "You did." Tony blinked at the feeling of self-hate tinged pride blooming over the worry in his head.

Phil looked like he wanted to frown, which made Tony want to smile wider. "What he means is that the Hulk took exception to not being able to remove the bracelet and he took his frustration out on Loki."

Bruce covered his face with his hand. "How bad is it?"

Tony rubbed at his head as the headache came back up with a swell of shame.

Phil pulled his gloves back on and rotated the bracelet around Bruce's wrist. "We do not know what this is for. The property damage from the fight is minimal."

Steve cocked his head as he stared down at the bracelet. "Half a block of abandoned buildings, no injuries other than Loki himself." He frowned. "We could try cutting if off."

Tony leaned in to get a better look and then stood up. "I'll go get one of the small laser cutters." He headed to his workshop. As he got off on his workshop's floor he had to pause and focus on willing down his headache where it was flaring back up. 

"No more skipping on my caffeine intake. Make a note, JARVIS."

"Would you like to reduce your alcohol intake to make room for the increase in caffeine, sir?"

Tony snorted and grabbed up a spare shin plate from his armor refit a few days prior and got the portable laser cutter. "Are you sassing me?"

"Of course not, sir."

Tony snorted, smiling, as he stared back up. He staggered against the elevator wall as a flash of pain hit. "Shit." It disappeared to leave him with a feeling of worried surprise. Tony shook his head and exited the elevator. "I got it..." He looked at everyone's expression. "What did I miss?"

****

Tony tried to focus on the model he'd made of the bracelet as Thor looked over the actual thing, still on Bruce's wrist. It was slow going with what Tony was thinking might be Bruce's feelings cluttering up his head. 

He frowned as Thor told them he didn't know what the bracelet was for. It was Loki's mess, so it had to be something of an attack. Tony rubbed his temple, trying to ease the low level panic that was creeping in.

Tony stared at the side of Bruce head when he told Thor he didn't think the bracelet was affecting him, but had given Phil and Steve a telepathic connection. Tony turned back to the model. It could be that Bruce's emotions where coming through because he'd been the Hulk first, maybe? Tony frowned.

Tony waved at Phil absently when he said he was leaving. He poked at the model.

"Shit." Bruce grimaced and started to turn towards Tony.

Feeling the cold bite of pain, Tony was already out of his seat as Steve stared to fall forward. He could feel Bruce's flash of calm, oh, got it, feeling of knowing just what needed to be done.

Bruce grabbed at Steve. "JARVIS, get Phil back up here. Now!"

Tony grimaced as the pain from the bracelet overwhelmed Bruce's other emotions even as Bruce eased Steve back onto the couch.

"Sit down. Phil's coming back."

Steve clutched at Bruce as Tony approached. "Phil."

Tony helped Bruce get Steve further onto the couch. "Just hold on, Cap. He'll be here in a minute." He hoped the connection between them wasn't as painful as his to Bruce seemed to be.

The elevator whooshed open and Clint came out supporting Phil.

"What is going on?" Clint paused as Tony slipped his shoulder under Phil's free arm and helped get Phil over to the couch.

Tony resisted the urge to rub at his head, he was going to start leaving marks if he kept it up. He shrugged. "We seem to be having problems with Loki's present to the Hulk." He glanced at Bruce, but all he was getting was cold, pain, and resignation.

Clint touched the bracelet. "Wow. That's cold."

Bruce nodded. "It's warming bak up now, though."

Tony watched quietly as Steve and Agent both woke back up, they were silently talking to each other, Tony could tell. It looked both awesome and awful. He patted Steve's shoulder when he lamented the distance limit to everyone. "We'll fix it."

They had to, because he wasn't going to let this keep hurting Bruce, even if Bruce couldn't hear him back.

Tony figured it was probably something wrong with him, or maybe interference from the palladium poisoning or something. He mentally sighed. It'd be really awesome...Tony cut off his stupid thought with a slight shake of his head and forced himself to focus on the bracelet.

Steve was pointing at Bruce's wrist. "Did it hurt you?"

Bruce covered his wrist with his other hand. "It got very cold."

Tony pulled on the bracelet to look at the skin underneath because he'd felt just how much pain Bruce had been in. The skin was blue-black. "Shit."

Phil sounded worried. "Maybe you'd better transform until we get it off you. I don't want you losing skin."

Bruce bit his lip and Tony could feel how worried he was.

Tony snapped his fingers. "That's prefect. Hulk can handle things to you can't, Bruce. I might be able to get it off faster." He mentally smiled as Bruce's exasperation with him bloomed. Tony moved to get his laser cutter and the armor panel. No more models, that thing needed to come off this instant.

****

Tony gripped the edge of the counter as Hulk looked around. _It's okay, Big Guy._

Hulk huffed. _Tony-inside?_

Tony picked up the armor panel and the cutter. _Just me, okay? We can hear each other when we think, but I don't want to tell Agent yet. Can you help me with that?_

_Agent is friend._

Tony grimaced and headed back over to where Hulk was standing. _I know, but this is scary for them. I don't want them more scared. I need you to sit for me, okay?_

Hulk sat down slowly and looked at Phil.

"Mr. Hulk."

Tony smiled at Hulk's flare of pride at the honorific.

"Friend Agent."

"Thank you for letting us try this."

Tony started trying to tuck the armor panel between the bracelet and Hulk's arm. _Yeah, thanks. I'll be as quick and painless as I can._

Hulk huffed. "Metalhead fix Puny God's puny toy?"

Tony glanced up from where he was having trouble pushing the armor into place. "I'm going to try, Big Guy. You okay?" He could feel Hulk thinking it over.

Hulk touched Steve's foot with his toe. "Hulk okay. Star Man okay?"

 _Star Man and Agent are hearing each other's thoughts. Sort of like us, Big Guy._ Tony pushed harder on the armor, it was starting to annoy him.

"What?" Steve looked around at them. "Who...you mean me?"

Hulk smiled, showing his teeth as he touched his own chest. "Star."

"Oh." Steve nodded. "Yes, I'm fine."

Tony mentally rolled his eyes. _Oh, yeah, just dandy. He's contending with his own confusion, Phil's thoughts, worrying about you, no clue he should be more worried. Life's just great._

Hulk frowned down at Tony as Steve and Phil looked like they were silently talking again.

"Thank you for giving me a decent nickname." Steve smiled up at Hulk.

Hulk smiled back. _Like names?_

_Yeah, Big Guy. They like when you name them. They feel a little less afraid of you._

Hulk pointed at Clint. "Cupid."

Clint smirked. "Really? Right now I think you're the cupid." He waved a hand between Phil and Steve.

Tony shoved on the armor, mentally cursing it.

Hulk cocked his head. He pushed the armor where Tony had been struggling to get it to go. "Star Man and Friend Agent happy?"

Tony sat back, panting, and waited for their answer.

"Yes, Hulk We are happy." Phil looked confident.

Tony could see them have another silent conversation before Steve looked content.

"Yes, we're happy, Hulk."

Hulk smiled. _Tony-inside likes Hulk like Metalhead does?_

Tony started up the laser cutter. _I'm Metalhead, Buddy. Wait? Were you thinking JARVIS was Metalhead?_ He started to cut at the bracelet.

_JARVIS is ghost Voice that helps. Metalhead is battle partner. Tony-inside is Hulk's friend._

_Oh._ Tony looked up at him as Hulk tensed. "You tell me if I start hurting you, okay, Big Guy?"

Hulk grunted and held still. _Can hurt Hulk. It not last._

_I'm not going to hurt you if I don't have to. We can just let you beat an answer out of Loki instead._

_No kill Thor's puny brother. Smash more later._

_You're right, it'd kill him to smash him more right now._ Tony wasn't pleased that the cut wasn't getting very far.

Hulk snorted, grimaced, and the put his other hand on his elbow.

 _I said to tell me when it hurt._ Tony pulled back. "You need me to stop?"

 _Get Puny God's puny bracelet off Hulk._ Hulk flexed the fingers of the hand the bracelet was on. "Hulk okay."

Tony frowned, but moved back in. _I meant it, you know. You need to tell me when you need a break._ Tony started cutting again. "It isn't healing up, so eventually I'll get through it.

****

Hulk enjoyed watching the little ones press their feet into Hulk's knee. It was nice to have people that didn't scream at Hulk. He listened as Star Man and Cupid talked about Friend Agent.

Hulk wrinkled his nose at the cold from the bracelet on one side of his wrist and the heat from the cutter on the other, no nice medium.

Star Man shifted to add his foot to Hulk's knee. Hulk smiled at them and huffed.

"You need to stop, Hulk?"

Hulk frowned at Star Man. "No."

Tony stopped and pulled away. His thoughts flit faster than Hulk could follow and then he was glaring up at Hulk. "You sound like you need to stop. Don't lie, Bruce."

Hulk snorted. _NOT Bruce!_ "Not puny Bruce."

"Oh, don't bullshit me. You and I both know you are Bruce. You'd never met me before you caught me falling from Loki's portal, do don't tell me that you two are completely separate."

Hulk felt Steve's weight move as he reached for his shield. Steve sounded worried, "Tony..."

Hulk leaned down and glared at Tony. "Puny Bruce stupid. Hulk not stupid." _Puny Bruce hate Hulk. Make Hulk go away always. You said you liked Hulk._

Tony glared right back. _I told Bruce I liked you. I told Bruce you aren't separate either._

"What do you mean? Bruce is pretty smart. Just like you." Clint grabbed at Hulk's hand.

Hulk frowned. _Cupid think Bruce smart?_

_Buddy, everything thinks Bruce is smart. We think you are smart too, just in a different way than Bruce._

Hulk shook his head. "Stupid, puny Bruce. Hulk know this."

Tony exchanged looks with the others. "Who told you that?"

Hulk blinked slowly, then straightened up and ran his thumb carefully over Clint and Steve's feet on his knee. "Puny Bruce Father say so."

 _Oh, Bruce and I are having a talk when you change back._ Tony frowned. "Bruce's father? He couldn't have talked to you, Hulk. You weren't around yet."

Hulk shrugged. "Tell Puny Bruce all truth."

_So what? You internalized it so much that you think you're stupid all the time? I'm telling you, Big Guy, I'm totally pouncing on Bruce and telling him just what I think._

Phil nudged Hulk's thigh with his toes. "What all did this man say, Mr. Hulk?"

Hulk knew the list by heart and went down it, ignoring Tony's angry thoughts. He hunched in on himself and lowered his chin to his chest as he finished with, "...monster."

 _No, you aren't. I'll convince you and Bruce. I promise._ Tony stroked Hulk's forearm. "Hey, Bruce isn't a monster. You aren't a monster, Hulk." He patted Hulk. "Bruce's father is the puny one, okay?" 

Hulk blinked as Tony's thoughts ran towards what things he'd do to Bruce's father once he got around to making a time machine. "Puny?"

Tony nodded and the time machine thoughts ebbed under the not-a-monster thoughts. "Yeah. Trust me, I would know." There was a flare of hate-Tony thoughts that disappeared as Tony clamped down on himself. "Ready to go again? We're almost through."

_Tony's father puny, too?_

_Yes. I don't want to talk about it._

Hulk sighed and nodded.

****

Bruce rubbed at his head where it ached and frowned. "Why would he think the other guy would have a soulmate?" He blinked as anger flashed through his head to be replaced by calm that felt forced. He mentally checked himself, but Bruce thought that he wasn't out of control enough be having flares.

Thor slapped him on the back. "Everyone has another soul that speaks to them."

Bruce would have snorted, but that'd be impolite. Sure, another soul. Like he'd be worthy of that sort of thing. The flare of anger was hotter this time and waned just as fast. Bruce frowned as he looked down at himself.

"Why wasn't the Hulk affected like Loki thought he would be?"

Tony settled across from them. "Maybe because Hulk's soulmate wasn't too far away." Everyone turned to look at Tony.

Natasha leaned forward and put her forearms on the table. "You think Bruce has two soulmates? One for the Hulk and one for him?"

Bruce frowned as his headache bloomed.

"No." Tony glanced around at them. "Uh, more like Bruce doesn't realize he can have a soulmate, so he's not getting anything like Steve and Phil are. I think it didn't kick clear in until Bruce transformed for us to cut off the bracelet."

Bruce stared trying to sort through Hulk's memories to see what he could get as Steve looked from Tony to Bruce and back.

Steve touched Phil's shoulder. "Tony, are you hearing Bruce's thoughts?"

The headache Bruce had flared with longing and Bruce turned his head to stare at Tony.

Tony shrugged. "Not really."

Bruce's eyebrows went up. "You heard the Hulk's thoughts?" The headache eased and turned slightly hopefully happy.

"He heard mine too."

Everyone erupted into noise. Bruce kept staring at Tony.

****

"You aren't those things Hulk says your father called you."

Bruce leaned into Tony as he sat down on the couch next to Bruce. "I know, but that doesn't always help." He could hear Tony's thoughts about how best to show Bruce he didn't believe the things Bruce had been called. "Hey."

Tony's gaze snapped to his. "Hey."

Bruce smiled. "I can hear your thoughts now."

Tony blinked and then smiled. "Oh?"

Bruce stared to blush. "You have a dirty mind, Mr. Stark."

With a laugh, Tony relaxed against him. "That's just my surface thoughts. You should see some of my deeper ones."

Bruce snorted. "Find us a bed and I'll think about looking for your depths."

Tony shot up and turned to hold out his hand towards Bruce. _Shall we?_

Bruce let Tony take his hand and haul him upright. _We might have to stop._

"Oh, we'll see about that, Big Guy."

Bruce smiled and followed Tony down the hall.

****


End file.
